In the first two months of 2020, a total of 402.7 billion yuan (56.8 billion U.S. dollars) in taxes and fees were cut across China in an effort to support business operations, according to the country's tax bureau.

Wang Daoshu, chief auditor of China's State Taxation Administration, said on Tuesday that additional tax reductions of 158.9 billion yuan (22.4 billion U.S. dollars) were introduced in 2020 in preferential policies issued to support epidemic prevention and control as well as economic development.

The tax and fee reduction policy introduced in 2019 has carried on into 2020, which helped to reduce 243.8 billion yuan (34.4 billion U.S. dollars), mainly in the form of value-added tax. Inclusive tax reductions for small and micro enterprises and deductions in personal income tax made up for 19.7 billion yuan (2.8 billion U.S. dollars).

Wang said the department is working on delivering the tax reductions to market players in a timely manner in order to help enterprises' resume work and production, as well as support economic and social development.

China's foreign trade dropped sharply in January and February, affected by the combined effects of an extended Lunar New Year holiday and coronavirus that disrupted the output and the supply chain.

China is monitoring the external trade situation in light of the global spread of the coronavirus and the country's tax bureau is studying allowing more foreign firms in more sectors to benefit from preferential policies including tax reduction, said Wang.

He continued that in the policy implementing stage, the bureau will ensure that domestic and foreign-funded enterprises enjoy the same tax and fee reduction benefits.

Cai Zili, deputy director of the Tax Reduction Office, said that sales resumption in service-related industries ushered in an accelerated period and household consumption was released rapidly. He specified that in the past week, the operation resumption rate of wholesale and retail industries related to household consumption reached 92.9 percent.

Supermarket and convenience store operation resumption rates both exceeded 90 percent. The work resumption rate of takeaway services reached 86.5 percent, Cai added.